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Summary
| “Menstruation should never be a barrier for women participating in football or supporting their team.” |
Football has been a stage used by various groups to help others in need. In this case, we have a very welcome but unexpected success that spread far & wide.
Three Celtic fans & season-ticket holders decided to help tackle the issue of period poverty for women, by campaigning initially on a trial basis for free sanitary products to be available for women to collect for their usage or for family & friends at Celtic Park.
The girls saw Celtic as the perfect club to lead by example on this important issue. Football is now often associated with money and big business. It’s important that grassroots supporters groups are given space to thrive and demonstrate football can be used as a source for good.
The primary aim was to ensure period products were free and accessible. For the girls, removing the stigma around periods was also important. It’s an important issue, but it is one that is hard for many people to talk about. Bringing the subject of periods into football grounds, a generally male-dominated environment, was a controversial move. However, it got people talking and put periods into public consciousness – as per the campaign’s aims.
The campaign also sought to increase the visibility of female fans and their needs – which are often overlooked. By getting ‘On The Ball‘ and recognising female fans, football clubs send out a strong message and demonstrate that the sport can be forward-thinking and inclusive.
The success of this campaign was fast and now has 79 teams on board (29 March 2019). The majority of these teams are in UK with one in the USA and Brazil.
These three Celtic fans are another great humbling example of the spirit of the support at work, and we hope them further good fortune in their efforts.
Through their efforts, football has played a role in assisting to normalising the related discussions in Scotland.
If you have any questions, or wish to get involved please see below for contact details.
The group’s activity ended in 2021, but not without making an impact and leaving a great legacy. For that many will be thankful eternally for them, and they have proven to have made a difference.
Links
- Twitter https://twitter.com/OnTheBaw
- Email: onthebaw@gmail.com
- Instagram: @OnTheBaw
Articles
Club becomes first in UK to provide free sanitary products
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/12722/celtics-ball-club-becomes-first-uk-provide-free-sanitary-products
Celtic has announced that it will provide free sanitary products at Celtic Park from next season
PERIOD POVERTY will be tackled at Celtic Park from next season with the football club becoming the first in the UK to offer free sanitary products on its grounds after a successful campaign by fans.
By August 2018, all female toilets will have a selection of free sanitary products for women football fans on a trial basis, with a decision made on a permanent provision by December.
Fans revealed on Twitter today [2 May] discussions with the club about tackling period poverty for “female fans and our needs” had been successful.
Celtic fan Erin Slaven welcomed the clubs decision after running the “eventful” campaign alongside fellow season-ticket holders Orlaith Duffy and Mikaela McKinley.
Read More: Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central yet to introduce free sanitary products four months after agreeing to
“Following discussions with the club around periods, period poverty and visibility of female fans and our needs, we are delighted to announce that our club will lead the way as the first football club in the UK to provide free sanitary products.
“Thank you to everyone who played a part in this successful campaign and to our club for once again showing we are a club open to all,” Slaven said on Twitter.
In 2017/18, Celtic Park had an average attendance at home matches of 57,624 people.
Surprise! We did it. @mjmxx @orlaithduffy1 After an eventful campaign, lots of research and co-operation with Celtic – sanitary products will be free in Celtic Park from next season. Thanks so much to everybody who helped us! Leading by example, the Celtic Way! pic.twitter.com/Car2io5pIf
— Erin Slaven (@ErinCSlaven) May 2, 2018
Scottish Labour’s Monica Lennon MSP, a long-time campaigner for the provision of free sanitary products, welcomed the announcement: “This is a brilliant victory for the activists who have been campaigning to secure free access to sanitary products at Celtic Park. After discussions with fans, I’m delighted that Celtic have taken this progressive step to become the first football club in the UK to provide free sanitary products.
“Menstruation should never be a barrier for women participating in football or supporting their team. As part of my ongoing campaign to tackle period poverty, I’m meeting the Scottish Football Association next month regarding its policies on menstruation for all football clubs in Scotland.
“Congratulations to Celtic and the campaigners who have fought for this positive step. I look forward to other football clubs and businesses across Scotland following their lead.”
The clubs decision will put extra pressure on Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central after CommonSpace revealed the train stations had not yet installed machines which would allow free access to products, despite promising to deliver fourth months ago.
Picture courtesy of Guillaume Gogo
Periods and football: Meet the fans campaigning for free sanitary products at stadiums
By Katie Falkingham
BBC Sport
From the section Football
Orlaith Duffy, Erin Slaven and Mikaela McKinley
Celtic fans Orlaith Duffy, Erin Slaven and Mikaela McKinley met through football
Periods and football are two things rarely, if ever, mentioned in the same sentence.
Still a taboo subject, many people will still ask – in 2018 – what periods have got to do with the sport.
But with more than a quarter of Premier League fans women, it has never been more relevant than it is now.
So, with that in mind, meet Orlaith Duffy, Erin Slaven and Mikaela McKinley – three Celtic fans behind the ‘On The Ball’ campaign to get free sanitary products in football grounds around the UK.
Young girls often come to games with male relatives, and it is difficult for them to say ‘Dad can I have £2 for the machine?’
“I was at the football at the start of the year and noticed that sanitary products are locked up in machines, sanitary bins are not in every toilet, and it just isn’t a priority for football clubs,” 21-year-old politics student Erin tells BBC Sport.
“One of our reasons for starting the campaign was to increase the visibility of female fans, because we are second on the agenda in football grounds.
“That’s not to say we’re made to feel unwelcome, but we aren’t a priority to football clubs and we’re really conscious of that.”
Starting earlier this year with their own club, the On The Ball trio went to Celtic Park to ask them to provide free sanitary products at the stadium.
“We knew we had to be confident and not be too intimidated as three young women going into a male-dominated sphere,” Erin says.
They were successful, and six more clubs in both Scottish and English football have followed suit including Kilmarnock, Tranmere Rovers and Barnsley.
On Saturday, their campaign went viral on social media when one football fan tweeted a picture of a basket full of sanitary towels and tampons at the latter’s Oakwell stadium.
Tweet
But why all the fuss?
According to charity Bloody Good Period, the average lifetime cost of sanitary products is approximately £4,800.
In addition, a 2017 survey of 1,000 14- to 21-year-olds by Plan International UK found that one in 10 women and girls have been unable to afford sanitary products, while 12% have had to improvise their sanitary wear.
Yet, as Erin points out, “people aren’t going around paying for toilet roll or soap in public toilets”.
She adds: “One of the most common arguments we get is that if people can afford a match ticket, they can afford a tampon.
“That’s easily quashed. At Celtic, and I imagine at a lot of other clubs, a lot of tickets are given to charities so young people come who haven’t paid for their tickets or their transport, so why should they have to pay for their period products?
“Young girls often come to games with male relatives, and it is difficult for them to say ‘Dad can I have £2 for the machine?'”
‘Who are these silly young girls?’
The reaction to On The Ball’s campaign has been, as expected, mixed – but the three women say there has been a “real change”.
After Celtic agreed to provide free products, the trio decided to “pursue the whole league”, but admit they never predicted it would have this much of a “knock-on effect”.
Since Saturday’s social media frenzy, several clubs around the UK have been in touch with Erin, Orlaith and Mikaela to express their interest in providing free sanitary products at their own grounds.
“At first, I think people thought ‘who are these silly young girls?’ They thought we didn’t even like Celtic, that we were just crazy feminists with our own agenda,” Erin says.
“There was still that medieval mindset that reared its head now and again that football is a men’s sport and there was no place for it. It is a male-dominated sport and 30 years ago, the idea that we would be talking about periods was unthinkable.
“It was really hard, especially for supporters who were that bit older, to understand why this had relevance to Celtic and to football.
“Celtic is such a big influence, we’re a very big club in a very big stadium with a big reputation, and we have always said that with that comes a responsibility to lead by example.
“It felt only right to do this through football, to bring about this kind of change.”